"It's all girls for us too. I don't think there are any boys who've convinced the magic on that point on our world."

"Oh - that's sad. Here 'crossdressing' is sufficient if you're good at... Really thoroughly inhabiting the role? Though straight men not raised by witches tend to prefer not to - the only male coven I know of is all gay and bisexual men."

"Oh well, none for me, I guess, stylist stereotypes aside."

"You wouldn't even like being magic."

"It's the principle of the thing."

"It was something I went after, but it's certainly not for everyone."

"Because you wanted a job as a ghost hunter?"

"I'm more of a therapist than a hunter, most times."

"How do ghosts pay you to therapize them?"

"I've been assuming you also have a day job."

"Working with ghosts is mostly a volunteer thing, though if they've been bothering a local coven the coven might compensate me some - but, yeah, I'm also a licensed therapist as my day job."

"Cool. Uh, if you don't have magical girls, pearls are probably expensive here, if I make some can that compensate you for finding us a place to crash?"

"I don't need compensation for a few days' worth - I'm glad to help out. But, yeah, pearls are really expensive here." And also Nausicaa isn't exactly rich.

"Cool. Uh, I don't know anything about how to efficiently sell them but maybe you can pawn them or something. Most stuff I make disappears if it leaves my person but organics I can grow so they stay put like nail trimmings or whatever do."

She hums and pulls out her phone, typing something in. "...Hm, apparently pearl jewelry is hard to resell, so a lot of pawn shops won't take them, and reselling to a jewelry shop usually doesn't get much more than a few hundred for a very nice strand, less if you don't have any documentation... They don't sell for much at all on ebay... But I'd be fine even selling them slowly, and if you can make them perfectly round and shiny they should be worth more, it sounds like?" Shrug. "It still wouldn't take much to cover any costs of helping you guys out."

"Arbitrarily exotic colors, round and shiny. I can also do, uh, coral? Cool shells? Exotic woods in any shape you like?"

Shrug. "Pearls should be okay, and I'm not pressed for cash..."

"Okay. Just want to make it clear that we're not trying to freeload."

She nods. "I appreciate it."

"Is there... much possibility of local magic being able to send us home?" Isabella asks, trying to squeeze into the car. "- if I shrink my wings will that mess up the illusion or will putting them back full size later do it -"

"To the first: I don't think it's impossible, but I honestly don't know... And to the second: it won't mess up the illusion."

She shrinks her wings to little fluffy cherub miniatures of themselves and gets in.

"Do we have to, like, go talk to a mountain hermit about it or what."

She laughs. "I'll email one, how about."

"Cool, up to the minute mountain hermits."